From the beginning of the current season until January, Turkey acquired 2.28 million tons of wheat from Russia, which is 1.9 times less than in the same period last year. Thus, Turkey, for the first time in the history of Russian exports, found itself in third place among importers, whereas previously it held the first or second place. This was reported by the analytical center "Rusagrotrans." This indicator is the lowest in the last eight years, starting from the 2016/17 season, when shipments amounted to 1.8 million tons. The decline in supplies is due to Turkey imposing restrictions on wheat imports since July 21 last year.
Overall, Russian wheat exports from the beginning of the season amounted to a record 32.2 million tons, which is 0.4 million tons more than last year when 31.8 million tons were exported during the same period. The volume of deliveries in January was 2.47 million tons, including to the Eurasian Economic Union countries, compared to 4.08 million tons in January 2024.
In the top countries importing wheat from Russia, Egypt took the first place, importing a record volume of 6.3 million tons of wheat from July to January, which is 1.7 times higher than during the same period last season (3.7 million tons). Bangladesh is in second place with 2.28 million tons delivered (compared to 2.49 million tons last year). Algeria is in fourth place, which increased the volume of purchases of Russian wheat from 1.6 million tons last season to 1.69 million tons. Kenya is in fifth place with 1.4 million tons, compared to 1.06 million tons in the previous year.
The Institute for Agricultural Market Studies (IKAR) recently lowered its forecast for Russian wheat exports for the current season from 43.5 million tons to 43 million tons, as reported by Reuters. The reasons for this are related to the availability of wheat meeting export requirements and the distribution of stocks - high stocks in the Urals and relatively low stocks in the South and Center of the country. IKAR's General Director, Dmitry Rylko, also believes that low exporter margins will impact export rates.